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Argentine
A thousand days are enough to stop calling it a debut.
Javier Milei entered the presidency carrying a chainsaw, an economic doctrine and a map of the world drawn in thick marker. On one side stood the United States, Israel and what he describes as the Western democracies. On the other were governments and political systems he considers incompatible with his ideological vision. China found itself uncomfortably placed in that second geography.
The problem is that countries do not trade with catechisms.
China does not need to be liked by Argentina’s president to remain one of the central players in the world economy, Argentine foreign trade and global demand for raw materials. Nor does the United States need to become an object of devotion to be an indispensable strategic partner.
A mature foreign policy can shake Washington’s hand without removing Beijing’s chair from the table.
Milei has chosen a different tune.
The rapprochement with the United States ceased long ago to be merely a diplomatic gesture. It has become a defining feature of his government. There is political, economic and cultural affinity, as well as a strategic wager. None of this is extraordinary. Governments have every right to establish priorities and build alliances.
The difficulty begins when alliance threatens to become automatic alignment.
Argentina, after all, is not located somewhere between Texas and Florida. It is a South American country that sells food, energy and minerals to the world and needs markets far more than it needs patrons.
Its national interests will not always coincide perfectly with Washington, Beijing, Brussels or any other capital. That is precisely why diplomacy exists: to manage agreements without mortgaging disagreements.
China provides exactly that test.
Beijing does not practise international charity either. It buys, sells, lends, invests and negotiates according to its own interests. That is worth remembering whenever relations with China are portrayed as some generous friendship between peoples.
But precisely the same rule applies to the United States.
Great powers have interests. Smart countries ought to have them too.
After a thousand days, Milei can no longer attribute every decision to the inheritance he received, nor every shock to the learning curve of a new administration. His government now has reforms of its own, political victories, internal disputes, legal battles, enemies cultivated with considerable enthusiasm and a foreign policy unmistakably bearing his signature.
And perhaps this is where one of the most interesting contradictions of the Milei experiment emerges.
The President who made freedom his banner appears considerably more comfortable with a foreign policy divided into boxes: friend or enemy, West or collectivism, ally or adversary.
International trade, unfortunately, has the irritating habit of ignoring boundaries drawn with an ideological marker.
Washington can be a privileged partner. It may even become Buenos Aires’ most important political ally.
But Beijing will still be there.
With its market, its investments, its financial power, its appetite for food and resources, and an international influence that will not disappear simply because the Casa Rosada turns the diplomatic thermostat down a few degrees.
The real question, therefore, is no longer whether Milei prefers the United States.
That was answered long ago.
The question is how much Argentina is prepared to pay for that preference.
A nation can have friends, allies and affinities.
What it should not have is someone else owning its compass.
And after a thousand days, it is no longer enough to ask where that compass is pointing.
It is worth asking who is holding it — and who is paying for the journey.
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Sources consulted: Argentine official information, diplomatic and trade background, international news agencies and international press.